*****
Agnessa could not forget about the events of the previous day. She got really enthusiastic after the conversation. They probably had a real chance to escape the underground city of the reptilians. The greenhouse she worked at had several floors and it was gigantic. The reptilians grew different plants, mushrooms, fruits and vegetables on each floor, providing the appropriate amount of light and humidity for them. Harvest and hard physical work were performed by flying dorgs. The girl was responsible for monitoring the quality of the harvested plants. She was working together with several reptilians. As a biologist, she was a useful member of the staff. She has been a prisoner there for two years, but considering the circumstances, the reptilians treated her quite well.
At the end of the day, they took her home, just like every other day. Everybody was waiting for her when she stepped into the apartment. Steven walked to her first.
"Agnessa, I'm happy you're here at last. Everybody was waiting for you. Can we go for a walk?" he winked at her.
The girl understood the secret sign immediately.
"Sure, we can go anytime," she answered enthusiastically.
Stepping out to the streets of the underground city, they searched for a calm area, where they could talk honestly, far from the curious eyes.
"I'm going to say it quick, we don't have much time," Steven started out.
"Seiren wants to talk to all of us today. She contacted me telepathically again this morning. She said she wanted to talk to all of us humans privately about something very important. She will pick us up soon. We don't know anything else yet."
"Interesting, what could she want from us?" the Russian girl was surprised.
"Nobody knows for sure, but Steven knows her the best, he was the one, who talked to her last time," the bearded professor was frowning.
"That's true. We will soon find out anyway, we have to get back to the square now."
The group of humans, mingling with the reptilians was a common view in this district. The reptilians were noticing them less here. They soon got back to the little square in front of their house. A few minutes later an airship landed on it. Entering it, the reptilian girl was waiting for them in her usual light white dress.
"Welcome, humans! Please sit down and then we can go," she made a verbal command and they took off immediately.
They were circulating above the city. They were curiously waiting for Seiren to say something.
"I asked you here because I want to talk to you about something very important. It will sound unbelievable, but you have to trust me. My real name is not Seiren, it is Rokina Astro. I am from the inner land empire of Agharta and I am human, just like you. My appearance you can see is a result of a very complicated process, or as you would say a surgical intervention. A few months ago we captured the real Seiren on the surface. We interrogated her and learned a lot of things, for instance, the fact that they are taking human hostages. We acquired some confidential information about the Draco race, planning an attack against the Earth. This is why I was sent here five months ago, to get to know what was going on here and how much the reptilians living here knew. We copied the whole body of the reptilian girl, using her DNA. I learned their language and gained a lot of useful information. She was helpful and she seemed to sympathize with the human race."
"I received some devastating and serious news, from my inner land contact. Our suspicion about the invasive fleet approaching the Earth, turned out to be true and they will get here in a few weeks. These reptilians are members of the Draco race, who are constantly in war with humanity. This is a very ancient race with very advanced technology. They have conquered a lot of worlds. They believe they are the most intelligent race in the universe, so everybody must serve them. The Galactic Federation, we are also part of tried to ward off the threat, but it did not work out. They ended the battles with great losses. There was only one reasonable solution left, namely the eviction of planet Earth as we cannot save it anymore."
The humans were shocked to hear all of this, they were listening to this unbelievable story, the girl told them with wide eyes. Steven was the first to talk.
"You want to tell us that the whole civilization on the face of the Earth has to leave the planet?"
"Yes, including you and us too. We could defend the inner land a bit longer, but the Paradise-like circumstances would be over during the battles."
"This Draco race, why are they the ones setting an eye on Earth?" Roger asked, puzzled.
"They are not satisfied with the work of the hybrid reptilians here, who are dependent on them. They are above all reptilian races, so they decided to take the matter in their own hands and conquer the whole planet. They want to make humanity their slaves and to reduce their number drastically.
"Did you contact us now to help us escape?" Agnessa asked.
"I did, but I have no idea how, I am going to do that. But I'm going to try to help you anyway.
"Are you a mundane human just like us?" the Russian girl asked, confused.
"Not exactly, my ancestors have Lemurian and Atlantisian heritage. Those who were not created by the Annunakis came here from a different star system to settle down. We came here after the continent we lived on sank after a catastrophe. Most of the survivors of our society fled to the inner land ten thousands of years ago. We founded our flourishing society then. We are members of the human race, so we are relatives."
"Why would we believe you, you might have just come up with this story?" Bruno was suspicious.
"I can convince you, I can connect to your mind and make you see what I saw there at the inner land. I will only show you a few pictures, because too much information could cause a shock. Please relax so our minds can connect."
A few moments later the invisible connection between the five individuals was born. Rokina began to project photos of the inner land to their minds, of its beautiful and intact nature and its transformation. Of its capital, Shambala, where the buildings and towers were glowing white in the burning red light of the sun. The people of the land who had blond hair and blue eyes. There are giants with a height of fifteen feet and average people too. The connection was aborted carefully in order to avoid pain.
"Do you believe me now?" she asked.
"The things you showed us were very convincing and unbelievable at the same time, but I believe you! I've always felt that you were different from the other reptilians," Steven replied with confidence in his voice.
"We are already drafting a plan and it seems to be coming together," Bruno said after the girl convinced him too.
"The point is that one of the reptilians developed a headband, that set to the wavelength of a given race can enable you to be perceived as one of them."
"That is good news, if you could get those, then you could come with me easily. I will ask for permission for an aboveground flight and you can join me. When could you be ready?"
"I think we need at least two days," Steven looked around the others who all agreed with him.
"Fine, then I'll pick you up in two days after work, everything will be fine if you can get that device you talked about. We simply don't have any time left, we have to act as soon as possible."
They were soon standing in front of their house as Rokina said goodbye. They were happy about the news, but they were also terrified by the ominous events. Another reptilian race, planning to invade the Earth that was not something they needed.
"Before we go in, let's clear some things up," Steven stopped the others.
"First we have to get the mercy guns because we need them badly. Roger and I will take care of that tomorrow," he looked at the tall man decidedly and he nodded back.
"The next day Bruno has to get the devices and then we are all set to go."
"But we don't have much time if anything goes wrong, the plan is over," Bruno warned everyone.
"Unfortunately that is true, we cannot make any mistakes, we only have this one chance."
The next
day Steven and Roger got the mercy guns from Karussa to shoot on goats, boars, and deers. They were doing a great job and at the end of the day, when they were supposed to give back the guns, the mission began.
"What do you mean you lost them? That never happened before! What the hell happened?" Karussa was interrogating them nervously.
"I accidentally dropped mine into an artificial pool," - Steven replied.
"Mine was crushed by a dinosaur, when I dropped it next to them," Roger answered.
"This is very strange, I have to report this to Pyrat, he will find out what happened. That's it, you can go now," he waved to a fellow reptilian to take the humans home.
Everything was going according to the plan, they got the two mercy guns with several doses of stupefying poison in them. Obviously they had to hide them from the sensors monitoring the house. The next day Bruno got one of the guns and Steven showed him how it worked, so it was all up to the genetics professor now.
During the day, Oronna and Bruno performed biological experiments on smaller mammals to test their immune systems. As the day was coming to an end, the bearded man asked the reptilian about the special headbands.
"We've produced new ones, but I'm waiting for permissions to carry on with the experiments."
"I get it, can I see them one more time?"
"Sure, I'll get them," he soon brought out the devices from a storage unit.
"Here they are, aren't they masterpieces?" he showed him the weirdly glowing metallic headbands, that had strange writing around them.
Bruno's heart was beating fast when he held them in his hands and realized there were only three devices.
"Is that all? Did you make any more?"
"Unfortunately I did not have time for this lately, you know how busy I am. Why are you asking?" he looked at the pale man.
Bruno realized that this was a huge problem since one of them would not be able to get a headband, which meant the death of that person if the others left. With a shaky hand, he got the mercy gun and pointed it on Oronna, who was stunned.
"I am sorry, but I have to take these with me."
"What has gotten into you, Bruno? Are you tired of living?" he was shocked.
"We are going to escape thanks to these devices, you can help or you can resist, it's all on you."
"You are making a mistake my friend, I hope you know that. There's a very a small chance you can get out of here alive, even with these devices."
"I only have one question, Oronna. How can you switch them on?"
"I see you've made up your mind. If you really want to die then fine. I will help you, Bruno Oswald, because I got to know you as an exceptional man. You see these two signs next to each other, you can switch the device on by touching them simultaneously. Setting the wavelength would be too hard to explain, but all three are set to our frequency."
"Thanks Oronna for helping me. May the Gods of the reptilians, if you have any, bless you. Now we have to say goodbye."
He pulled the trigger and a pin-like bullet hit the reptilian. He reached for it and took it off, but the opiate already got into his system. First he felt dizzy, but Bruno caught him to avoid breaking anything and laid the unconscious reptilian on the ground. There was no one besides them in the lab that day. He quickly hid the headbands under his robe. Behind the door, the guards were sitting in the waiting room and one of them was responsible for taking the genetic professor home from the workstation.
"Are you done for today, human? Can we go now?" he asked the bearded man approaching them.
"Yes, we are done for today, Oronna let me off," he was trying to hide his nervousness from the reptilian, but he did not suspect anything.
He was in front of their flat in a few minutes. He took a deep breath and entered the house, where everybody was waiting for him.
"Did you get them?" they asked him excitedly.
"I did, but there's a problem. There are only three of them."
The air suddenly froze. Everyone was looking at each other confusedly.
"What are we going to do now?" Agnessa asked the others, desperately.
"Everybody calm down, we will come up with something, we have time," Steven interrupted.
As they were talking loudly, the door suddenly opened and an unexpected guest entered. His scale-patterned uniform had a silvery glow, he straightened up and looked on the humans gloatingly. They were frozen by the sudden appearance of their visitor.
"What is the quarrel about, humans?"
His words paralyzed and muted them. Roger was the first to break the painful silence.
"Nothing serious, we were just thinking out loud."
"Whatever, I only came because I got another complaint from Karussa. You lost two mercy guns and, unfortunately, that has to have some consequences. I told you the next time you would get more serious punishment," he was pointing at the men with his claw.
There was a noise coming from the outside as an uragan was landing. A voice in the people's mind began to talk.
"This is Rokina, I am here and I am waiting for you."
"Are you expecting someone?" Pyrat asked mockingly, hearing the sound of the vehicle.
Roger stepped closer and suddenly hit the reptilian on the chin, with his long arm so hard that the lens from the soldier's eyes fell to the ground. He grabbed his head and almost collapsed from the pain. Pyrat reached for his gun, but the tall man was quicker and shot him with the mercy gun. The little pin hit the surprised reptilian on the forehead. He dropped his gun and fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes.
"What have you done Roger?" Steven shook him.
"I did what I had to do, we don't have much time, you have to go, I'll stay and keep them up!"
"But this is suicide, you have no chance!" Steven shouted angrily at his friend.
"Please don't do this, Roger!" Agnessa grabbed his hand.
"It's okay, love, I've always wanted to be a hero. I can become one now, at least in your eyes," the man was smiling.
The girl hugged him and although he was at least ten inches taller, she kissed him on both cheeks. Struggling with her tears, she turned around, sobbing. Bruno hugged him too and patted his back.
"This was very brave of you. I am so sorry I could only get three devices, this was not supposed to happen like this."
"This is not your fault Bruno. You have nothing to feel sorry about."
Steven stepped to the man.
"You crazy bastard! There would have been another way, you shouldn't have done this!" he shook his hand.
His ocean-blue eyes were colored with anger and helplessness.
"No, my friend, there was no other way," the thin man replied.
"One of us had to make this decision and I did. Now go, you don't have much time before the reptilian arrives!"
Bruno got out a knife.
"He is right! Quick, give me your arms, I'll cut out the implants. We don't need them anymore."
The professor skillfully and precisely removed the devices, only leaving a tiny scar on the arms. He treated the scars with a special medication that made them heal immediately.
Roger waved goodbye and the others felt very sad, but deep inside they already understood that it was supposed to happen this way. Somebody had to sacrifice himself, or no one had the chance to get out alive. Their friend made a brave decision, however, rushed and irresponsible it first seemed.
"The world will know your name, my friend. I can promise this to you," Steven said on a bitter voice.
"God bless you, my friends, good luck!" the man shouted.
The three of them quickly headed towards, the vehicle waiting on the small square. Bruno was clenching the headbands tightly. A few reptilians around them were staring, but they were used to their presence and did not think anything important was about to happen.
Rokina was waiting impatiently, leaning over the control panel.
"At last you're here! What took you so long?"
"Roger is not coming," Steven
looked deep in her eyes.
"What do you mean he's not coming? What happened?"
"We only have three disguise devices," Bruno showed her the headbands.
"He decided voluntarily to stay, gaining time for us. He attacked Pyrat, one of the guardians, who is lying on the floor unconsciously now."
"That is great bravery and sacrifice. I would not have thought this of him. But now we have to take off and use our last opportunity. Quickly, get these clothes on," she gave them those characteristic light white dresses.
They took them on quickly and Bruno handed them the headbands.
"Can you see these two signs on it? If you push them, the device is activated. Then you can place it on your forehead."
They all followed the instructions of the bearded professor. When they looked at each other they could not see any difference.
"I really hope it actually works or we will be in big trouble," Steven was worried.
"Don't worry, we have tested it with the reptilian scientist," replied Bruno.
Rokina could not confirm whether it was working as her wavelength was not the same as the reptilians, even though her body was transformed.
The aircraft made a humming noise and ascended, heading towards the central building of the city, but nobody cared about this, they were all commemorating their friend quietly. The air was burdened with a heavy silence.
A few minutes later they arrived at the great square in front of the giant building that was especially busy that day. There were uragans arriving and leaving. At least two dozens of armed reptilians were rushing to their ships. They were wearing metallic, silvery armors and they were speaking their strange reptile language. They all knew where these reptilians were going.
They got off the aircraft any looked upon the giant, 300-yard tall building in front of them. This was the heart of the city with the heaviest traffic. They headed towards the entrance in the crowd with Rokina in the front. The reptilians walking around them did not pay attention as their disguising device was working perfectly.
There were many entrances to this barrel-shaped, giant building. They entered an enormous hall, where they could find all castes of the reptilian society, from the counselors to the guardians, including the teachers and the scientists. In the middle, there was a dark blue, beautifully carved statue of a dragon with open wings. There was water flowing from its mouth to the fountain around it. The ceiling was held by rectangular pillars all around the bright hall. On the other side, there were several elevators. Their female leader headed towards one of them with determination. They all got in and Rokina gave the verbal command on reptile language and they immediately began to ascend with a quiet rustling noise.
"From now on, no one says a word or we are going to be busted," the girl turned to the humans. Everybody nodded silently.